


How To Fall In Love With Your Mark

by sunkelles



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, assassin! bart allen, bart allen's big old crush on jaime reyes, dreams as a narrative device, mentions of spitfire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-12 08:43:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10486824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: a comprehensive guide by Bart Allen





	

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was an experiment, and i've been working on it off and on since october probably? i think that i started it during bluepulse week but i've just had so many other projects that i've been working on. i'm glad that it's finally done so that you guys can enjoy this nonsense too.

Bart becomes an assassin after escaping the Reach the first time, once the Resistance get the collar off his neck and he can finally run again. He's grateful enough that he's willing to try anything they ask, really. They aren't shy to ask for what they need.

 

It turns out that he makes a good hitman. He's not a huge fan of the job, but he's good at it, and it's a good way to take out bugs and bugfuckers. He's probably the best one on the East coast.

 

As a speedster he can plunge his hand into someone's chest and stop their heart from beating. It looks like heart failure, and it's nearly impossible to trace. It makes an assassination look like an accident, and it makes it a lot easier to cover up. The Reach don't even know that he's doing it.

 

Bart returns to the past to fix it. Nathaniel helps him build a time machine, and the rest of the Resistance wishes him well and gives him a clear mission: kill Blue Beetle. They might have multiple objectives in mind, but the most important is assassinating Blue Beetle. They know if he can take the Reach's infiltrator out of the mix, he can turn the whole tide of the War.

 

He just has to keep to the guidebook he's designed from years of hits.

 

The first and foremost part of a kill? Know your enemy. Know your mark intimately, thoroughly. Understand their mind. Know what kind of resistance they will put up.

 

**Step 1. Check out the mark's personal belongings.**

 

The easiest thing Bart has access to is Blue Beetle's locker, so he rummages through it the first chance he gets.

Contents of Blue Beetle's locker, a complete list:

 

  * a royal blue hoodie
  * a pair of jeans
  * a half empty water bottle
  * a stick of deodorant
  * a half finished math paper
  * a bag of chicken whizzies



 

It doesn't seem like the storage facility of a traitor to all humankind, but Bart reminds himself that it is in the Cave. It's unlikely that Blue Beetle would hide his Reach paraphernalia right under the Team's noses. If he had, he likely would not have made such an effective infiltrator.

 

Jaime Reyes must be an amazing liar, even better than Bart himself. He had the entire Team fooled into thinking he was just some kid from El Paso, and then he helped instigate the entire Reach take over.

 

**Step 2. Talk to the mark.**

 

Blue Beetle is funny? He acts like a real teenager? Bart even thinks that he might actually _like_ him. This requires more research.

He adds another step.

 

**Step 3. Take the mark out for pizza for further investigation**

 

It’s easier to get Blue Beetle to agree to hang out than Bart expects it to be, especially since Bart makes it clear that he won’t be paying. He might just be a nice guy, he might be lonely, _or_ he might be trying to put on a facade because he suspects that Bart suspects him. Bart doesn’t really know where his legitimate insights end and his paranoia begins.

 

Instead of thinking into this, Bart shoves a slice of pizza in his face. Blue Beetle sends him a judgy look.

“Ey,” Bart says through bits of pizza, “don’t judge.”

“That’s nasty, hermano,” Blue Beetle says. Bart shrugs, and keeps shoving pizza down his throat. He chugs some Coke to wash it down, and ends up with a bit of a queasy feeling in his stomach. He’s pretty sure it’s just because of all the junk food he ate and not his nerves.

He knows that he shouldn’t eat so much, especially since his stomach isn’t used to it. It’s just that pizza tastes really good and he likes how pop fizzes in his mouth, and he knows that adolescent boys are _supposed_ to eat everything in sight, so he needs to keep up the act, _especially_ around Blue Beetle.

“You done inhaling that pizza?”

“Yep!” Blue Beetle doesn’t look convinced, but takes a reasonable sized bite of pizza himself. He picks up his can of Pepsi (of fucking course the Blue Beetle drinks _Pepsi_ ) and takes a dainty looking sip Bart assumes is a reasonable human gulp.

"So," Bart says, "how'd you get that bug on your back?" Blue Beetle raises his eyebrow as he chews his food.

"That's a little personal, ese," Blue Beetle says, "you start all your conversations like this?"

"Only the ones with really interesting guys," he says, and the moment the words come out he wants to take them back. That sounds so _flirty_. No matter how hot he is, Bart doesn't want to flirt with this guy.

 

Blue Beetle rolls his eyes. He seems unfazed by or completely unaware of the flirting.

 

"Please," Bart says, "pretty, pretty please?" He needs as much information as he can get about this guy. 

"It just bit my back and it’s been there ever since," Blue Beetle says, like that tells him _anything._

“How did you get _your_ powers?” Blue Beetle counters. He’s redirecting the conversation off of himself and onto Bart, like the _evil genius infiltrator he is._

“I was born with them,” Bart says casually, giving away just enough information that Blue doesn’t think he’s avoiding the question.

“Bet you were a terrible toddler,” Blue Beetle says, grinning. That sounds casual, fun, like he’s just moving the conversation along, not trying to analyze and work Bart’s story apart.

“You know those little leashes parents put on their kids nowadays?" Jaime sends him a confused look. 

“My mom really could have used one of those, well, if I couldn’t run faster than the speed of light.:

“They don’t have child leashes in the future?”

“Uh, no,” Bart says, scrambling to find an appropriate, utopian reason why they stopped making them, “they outlawed those years ago, people decided that they were “abusive” or something.”

“Must be nice,” Blue Beetle says, “living in a future where _that’s_ a major problem.”

“Yeah,” Bart says, “it’s all sunshine and rainbows. Really sucks being stuck here.”

“It doesn’t all have to suck.”

“You’re saying?”

“I read this book in English last year about this guy from like the eighteen hundreds who went back to medieval days. He used his knowledge to become a king, basically. You can use your future-person knowledge to cheat the system.” Bart doesn’t know what to do with that information. It’s devious, but not in any sort of malicious way. It’s devious in all the ways that Bart himself is devious.

It makes him feel more at home in the conversation than he’s comfortable being.

“That would be a great idea,” Bart says, “if I _had_ any cool future knowledge.”

“You don’t have any?”

“I’m just a kid, I’m not a physicist or something. School wasn’t that different back then, or in the future. Or whatever we’re calling it. I can’t use my super special knowledge to take over the world. You on the other hand-”

“You saying I could take over the world?” Jaime asks skeptically. Bart forces a smile so Blue Beetle can’t tell that he fucked up and how scared he is.

“Well, maybe. What all can that thing do?”

“You’re really interested in the scarab,” Blue says, “he’s kinda feeling threatened.” Bart knows that whatever that is is bad news, and decides not to push his luck in that department.

“I’m just making conversation.”

“I think the scarab wants you to make some other conversation.” Bart nods, acknowledging that he’s going to have to try something else.

“The scarab does? Is it like a person, is that why you talk to yourself?”

"You know, you're only the second person to ask that." 

"Really?" Bart asks. Blue Beetle shrugs.

"The rest of them just think I'm crazy." Bart raises an eyebrow. That's a nonanswer if he ever heard one. 

"Yes," Blue Beetle says, rolling his eyes, "the scarab’s sentient and everything. He talks to me a lot.”

"So what does it say?" Bart asks.

"He gives me strategies, tells me to kill people," Blue Beetle says. Apparently the look Bart has on his face is freaked out enough.

"The scarab thinks everyone's a threat, especially you."

"Me?" Bart asks, laughing nervously, "why?" Blue Beetle glares to the side, probably at the scarab.

"He's not interrogating me," Blue Beetle tells his back. Either he's telling the truth about having a conversation with a piece of tech, or he's a really good actor. 

"Nope," Bart lies, "definitely not interrogating you." How the hell did that piece of tech figure that out, and more importantly, can it take Jaime over completely? Is that what will make him Big Bad Blue? Assuming that he's not Big Bad Blue to begin with. 

"The scarab's paranoid," Blue Beetle says, "he tried to pull out the cannons the first time mama woke me up in the morning." Bart changes the topic to something mundane which won't tip the scarab off that he's interrogating him, and instead catalogs questions to ask him later, sporadically, so not to alert the scarab that he's probing.

He's going to have to spend a lot of time with this guy to subtly get all the information he needs. All the information he needs before he takes him out of the picture.

 

 

**Step 4. Hang out with the mark and gather information.**

 

They hang out more, and each time Bart gathers a bit more information about the Blue Beetle. Soon enough he's even thinking of him as _Jaime_ instead. That's concerning, but he tries not to read too much into it.

 

One time when they’re hanging out, Jaime tells a story about his sister making him sing a Disney song for her before she'd let him inside the house, and Bart laughs on the surface. Inside, he wonders whether that's the truth or a carefully constructed lie.

 

He suspects it's the latter, but it was told with such sincerity he almost wants to believe it.

 

**Step 5. Befriend the mark.**

 

Bart won't leave Jaime alone until he figures out what the hell is going on. The guy seems like a normal teenager, but Bart can't believe that. It just doesn't seem possible.

 

He's spent his entire life thinking Blue Beetle fooled the Justice League and betrayed all of humanity. He's not going to let Jaime Reyes fool _him_ too. So he worms his way into Jaime’s life, and into his house. And eventually he meets his confused mother.

 

"This is my friend Bart, from," Jaime pauses for a long, uncomfortable period of time before he adds on, "algebra." Bart sends her a winning smile.

"Algebra," his mother repeats skeptically. 

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Reyes!" Bart calls out. Mrs. Reyes rolls her eyes as she heads up the stairs.

“It’s a good thing I trust you, mijo,” she says.

Jaime Reyes is no master liar. He can't even properly lie to his _mother_. Either that, it he is such a masterful liar he can pretend to be bad at it in order to fool Bart into thinking he is. It's all making his head hurt.

 

**Step 6. Save Jaime Reyes**

 

Bart can't believe that he's let it get to this point, where his mark is more important than his mission. Where he won't let his mark stay his mark.

 

Bart can't believe that he trusts him, but he does.  He trusts him whole-heartedly, like first love and all the stupid-happy that comes with that. He trusts him and he knows that it will bite him in the ass.

 

Bart is holding Jaime's hand, fingers woven together tightly. The other boy is smiling widely, laughing. Bart doesn't remember telling a joke, but he must have. He wishes that Jaime would always smile like that. Bart leans in and kisses him, and Jaime kisses back.

For a moment, it's magical. For a moment, it feels like they're the only people on earth. Then, the spell is broken. Bart hears chirping, and feels something moving against his lips.

A pile of blue beetles has emerged in the place of Jaime's body, like the Oogie Boogie man without his burlap skin.

Bart screams, and the Jaime figure laughs a laugh that isn't Jaime's as it shifts into something else entirely. The big, muscular Blue Beetle stands before him, maniacal grin plastered on his face.

"You're not Jaime," Bart says. The Beetle laughs, demonic voice over Jaime's.

"Am I?" He says, "you don't know. You won't know until it's too late." A sinking feeling settles in Bart's stomach, like a hush puppy that settled in with a gallon of Mountain Dew and a whole basket of fries.

"You aren't," he says. He wants the words to be true, but he doesn't _know_. He might be letting his guard down for a traitor to humankind. He might be falling in love with a monster.

"Up slave," the being says in Jaime's voice, all Texas Mexican drawl. Bart points forward, accusingly.

"You're not him," Bart says, "you _can't_ be." The being laughs and laughs, and Bart watches as it closes it's enormous, bug-like eyes. It opens them back up, and his eyes glow red.

 

Bart wakes up screaming. He clutches the covers, and then his pillow before he realizes that he's in a bed.

He's in a bed, which means that it's the year 2016 and he lives with the Garricks and the Reach don't rule. Jaime Reyes is either his best friend or his worst enemy. Either way, he won't be kissing him any time soon.

"It's just a dream," Bart mumbles, "it's just a dream." Jay enters his room, pajama shirt rustling behind him.

"I heard screaming, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Bart promises, "just a nightmare."

"Sounded like more than that," Jay says.

"Just watched a horror movie before bed," Bart says, "you know, we don't have horror movies back where I come from, because everything's so great it's kinda hard to make it scary. The real horror story's being stuck in this past."  

"Sure kid," Jay says, but he doesn't press. Bart knows that Jay doesn't believe him, but he leaves him be. Bart appreciates that. He appreciates that Jay just lets him do his thing instead of prying.

 

The Reach captures them. They escape, but Bart blabs to Jaime about his future and Jaime blabs to the League. And God, Bart's _glad_ about it. He's glad that his cover is blown, because it proves that Jaime is who is says he is, that he is a free man trying to stay that way.

 

Unless of course, even this is part of an elaborate ruse. He squashes the thought. It's no use worrying himself that much. He decided a long time ago that Jaime was actually Jaime and that Jaime was his friend. He won't let his paranoia ruin that.

 

Jaime looks up from his slice of greasy pizza.

 

"So this whole friendship thing," Jaime says, "that's because you were watching me, wasn't it." He sounds deeply sad, like Bart had betrayed every bit of his trust.  

"No," he says, "it started that way, but it's more than that now. You're my friend." It's the stupidest thing that he's ever done, but Bart trusts Jaime. He has his doubts, but he's willing to set them aside for this, for Jaime.

 

Jaime still looks skeptical.

 

"Alright," he says. He doesn't sound like he believes him, but Bart understands why. Bart befriended him for information, and then to eventually kill him. It's not the healthiest basis for a friendship, or what he really wants to come afterwards. He'll have to deal with that eventually.

 

Then, Bart wakes up in another Reach prison and realizes that the Reach got Jaime on mode. They escape, but Bart feels like he’s still locked up. The Reach have Jaime, and there’s nothing he can do about it. He feels so _powerless._ His future is coming to pass, and he can’t save Jaime, let alone the world.

 

Bart shows up at Wally’s doorstep at one the next morning, stomach in knots and worried out of his mind. He rings the doorbell a total of fifteen times before Wally throws the door open. He seems irritated, and Bart pretends to be embarrassed.

 

"Can we talk?" Bart asks.

"You're already on my doorstep," Wally says.

"Oh, right," Bart says.

"Are you alright?" Wally asks, "is this, like, an emotional thing after being captured by the Reach again? Do I need to get you a session with Black Canary or something?"

"No," Bart says, groaning as he runs over to the couch, "I don't need a brain Doctor." At least, he thinks that's what Black Canary does at her sessions. He's not familiar with the concept of therapy.

"Psychiatrist," he tells him. He rolls his eyes.

"You past folk with your fancy words." Wally raises his eyebrow.

"You sound like Jay, grumbling about how much better things were in the old days.” The thing is, he half loves all this unnecessary shit that people get in the past and he half hates it. It makes the world both simpler and more complicated. It's all very confusing. Bart decides not to address that, because the half hatred part might freak out his cousin who is _not_ from a dystopian world.

"I'm just, I'm so _worried_ ," Bart says, bouncing his leg up and down. Jaime would put his hand out to stop it. But Jaime's not here right now. Right now, Jaime's not _Jaime_.

"They've got Blue on mode."

"Of course you're worried," Wally says, "the dude caused your shit show of a future when he was on mode. I'd be worried too."

"No," Bart says, "it's not that." He doesn't know how to say this, doesn't know if he can. He's barely admitted it to himself.

"Then what is it?" Wally asks.

"I'm worried sick about Jaime," he says, "I'm worried about never getting him back, about the Reach hurting him."

"Bart," Wally says, "I get it, he's your friend-"

"It's more than that," Bart spits out, "it's like, remember that time you thought Artemis was dead?"

"She is dead," Wally says coldly.

"We both know that's not true," Bart says. Wally looks shocked.

"You knew?" Bart nods, doesn't offer any details. He doubts Wally wants to hear about how the Reach found the League infiltrators in the Light and had them publicly executed. He doesn't want to know about how a different Wally tried to run across the world to save Artemis, and got there just a moment too late. How the Reach slapped a collar on him, and ran him dry, after watching the love of his life die. Yeah, Wally West doesn't want to hear any of that.

"It was like when you thought everyone was dead, but Artemis was the only one that mattered." This Wally never told him that story. The Wally that did was world-weary, dead friends and years in an inhibitor collar had broken something inside him, but he never stopped loving his dead girlfriend.

"Oh," Wally says. He doesn't question how Bart knows this, or even comment on the confession he has just made. Bart thinks that's a bad sign.

"I'm sorry," he says, "forget I said anything. I was just confused, definitely didn't just compare my buddy-pal-hermano-platonic person to the love of your life." He giggles nervously. God, he's shot himself in the fucking foot. _His_ Wally died when he was eight, trying to help him escape the bugs. He doesn't know how he'd react to him being gay, especially not back in 2016 when homophobia was a thing and people didn't have evil overlords to worry about instead.

"Kid," Wally says, almost gently, "I'm not homophobic or anything, I'm just kinda surprised you got a crush on _him_. He caused your shit future."

"It wasn't his fault," Bart says, "they got him on mode, and then he couldn't control himself. Stuck in his own body, forced to betray everyone he ever cared about, can you even imagine that?"

"A little," Wally says, with a half smile. Whatever the joke is, Bart doesn't get him.

"I have to save him," Bart says.

"Everything will be fine," Wally says, "Artemis, your Blue Beetle guy."

"And if not?" Bart asks, his voice small, cautious.

"Then I kill Nightwing," Wally says simply. Bart doesn't know him well enough to be able to tell whether or not this is a joke.

"Now go home," Wally says, "get off my damn couch. Jay and Joan are probably worried about you." Bart runs home, and tries not to worry. It doesn’t work, but he does try.

 

After a lot of worrying, and a lot of planning, and a lot of work they finally get Jaime off mode. Bart has never felt more relieved in his life, even when his time machine worked and he ended up in the past. He feels a twinge of jealousy as Jaime hugs Zatanna, but tries to rein it in. He knows that guy friends didn’t show much physical affection in this era for fear of being seen as gay, and as a closeted gay guy it’s probably best for him just to go with it.

 

Instead, they high five, and their hands linger, Bart's fingers wrapping around Jaime's and intertwining in them.

 

"Um," Jaime says, blushing, "this some sort of future high five?" Friends aren't supposed to hold hands, especially friends who are both boys. He thought that he’d avoided this by going for the high five instead of the hug.

"Yeah," Bart says, "the crashest of high fives. The spider five, that's why the fingers wrap around, like legs." He squeezes for a moment to make his point, then withdraws his hands from Jaime's.

“You’re so weird,” Jaime says affectionately. Bart smiles widely. God he’s missed this.

 

  
In the end, they save the world. Then, the Team meets up and has a party afterwards. Joan calls and lets him know that she still expects him home by eleven. Which, come on, he just saved the world? Can’t he stay out a bit later? But it turns out alright because Jaime’s parents do too. They leave the party at the same time, and make their way towards the zeta tubes.

 

"Wanna go see the new Captain America tomorrow?" Bart asks. He’s really missed hanging out, and he thinks that seems like a fun movie. Jaime somehow seems shocked by this invitation.

"You still want to be friends?" Jaime asks.

"Yeah?" Bart says, "is that a real question?"

"And I told you I liked you, for real," Bart says.

"I thought you were just saying that to watch me," Jaime says. A reasonable assumption, honestly. Bart wouldn't trust his intentions either.

"You don't think too highly of yourself, do you?" Bart asks. He means it as a joke, but Jaime bites his lip. Scratches his back the way he does when he's uncomfortable.

"Nobody really likes me on the Team."

 

Bart wants to tell him that's not true, but he can see why he'd think so at least. Robin calling him a traitor is still fresh in his mind.

 

"Dios, I didn't think the kid from the future I ruined would be my first real friend on the Team."

"Get used to it," Bart says, "you're stuck with me." Jaime smiles back at him.

"I think I can live with that," he says. They’re finally at the zeta, and Bart grins.

“I’m gonna trust fall into it,” he says.

“What, no. You’re gonna eat shit-” But Bart falls backwards into it, and the Zeta tube transports him to Central City. Then he falls on his ass. He’s kind of glad that Jaime wasn’t there to see that.

 

But then again, who cares if he falls? Wally is dead, but he died to save the world. The world is safe, Jaime is himself, and everything seems to be getting better.

 

Bart is fourteen years old and the world is not ending. The world is saved. He has a friend instead of a mark.

 

**Step 7. Throw out the Guide. Write a new one**

 

Bart's going into uncharted territory. Trying to have friends and a family and be a hero in an era where he's not a slave or even a child soldier. He doesn't know how to go about it, but that's alright.

  
He thinks he can work it out later.

**Author's Note:**

> the book jaime mentions is "a connecticut yankee in king arthur's court" in case you're wondering. he doesn't give a super accurate rundown of it, but that seemed like the part that he'd latch onto.


End file.
